trimming blackcurrants

We have a number of currant bushes (black and red and one rather measly white) which have put on an amazing amount of new growth this year.  The currants are in there - somewhere - if you search for them - but the bushes are taking over the whole soft fruit bed and it's a struggle to get to the strawberries.

I know about the different fruiting habits of red and black currants and pruning them in the winter, but will it harm them (or next year's crop) if we trim back some of the soft new growth now?

Since blackcurrants fruit on young wood, if you trim the young growth you will lose fruit next year.

I was amazed a couple of years ago when our daughters plot neighbour asked if we would like some blackcurrant cuttings. He handed us an armful about August time. Said to put them in a bucket of water & they would root, wshich they did. I did the same with whitecurrant prunings & have a bucket full all in leaf & very healthy. You learn something every day.

If you can wait a few weeks until the fruits are ready you can prune the blackcurrants without harming next year's crop by simply cutting out all the fruiting stems and then picking off their fruits at your leisure while sitting comfortably on your favourite garden chair with a suitable beverage at hand.  This leaves enough non fruiting new shoots to mature over the summer and produce fruits next year and keeps your bushes to a reasonable size.

I'm not sure if this system would work on redcurrants as mine have not yet grown so big I need to cut them back.

I agree with obelixx thats the advice i was given

Thank you everybody - with all the rain we've not had a chance to do anything to them yet and they're now about six feet tall.....  Yes, we'll wait for the fruit (in there somewhere) to ripen.